Instagram

Throughout this week at PushOn my time has been almost entirely dedicated to research about social media as well as some small things such as an introduction to blogging and an introduction to SEO. Social media is what most teenager’s lives revolve around. I can’t name one of my friends who doesn’t have Facebook or doesn’t watch YouTube. Although it sounds bad it’s true that social media provides a simpler form of human interaction. Over time social media changes hugely. Even in the past three years there have been dramatic changes in the different forms of social media used. In 2012 the most used social app among people my age was twitter. However, trends are different not only at different times but in different places. In 2012, the most used form of social media among my peers was BBM. Whereas, now it is YouTube. I conducted a survey among a small percentage of my form to see how much time they spend on social media and what social medias they spend it on.As you can see things like WhatsApp, BBM and MySpace e.t.c. have been almost completely phased out and replaced by newer platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Just for fun I also decided to see what forms of technology my peers use and compare it to some research conducted by Mintel a few months earlier. Mintel found that the Laptop is the most used form of technology:(Mintel research on technology used, March 2015)

Whereas I found that touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets were much more common with my friends (My research on technology used, December 2015)

The last bit of research that I conducted among my friends was about the different social media platforms they have used in the last month and compared it to Mintel again:(Mintel research on social media platforms used, March 2015)

(My research on social media platforms used, December 2015)

Even though the two sets of Data are only eight months apart, you can clearly see the rise in percentages of people using the different social media’s.

As I mentioned earlier, many forms of social media have been phased out and replaced by more modern platforms. Using google trends you can see how over the past few years their have been crossovers between the older social media’s and the newer ones, and how the newer ones are still growing and will most likely continue to grow (that is until something bigger and better comes along again).(YouTube vs Skype searches, January 15th 2016) (Red: YouTube Blue: Skype)

Now a little bit about each of the individual Social Medias that people my age use. Instagram is one of the most commonly used social media apps/websites. It revolves almost entirely around pictures but also has a direct messaging feature. People use it to watch funny videos and look at funny pictures. They also use it to see what friends are doing and what celebrities are doing e.t.c. Finally, people use it to post selfies and annoying pictures of everything they eat! Nevertheless, Instagram is a fun and promising form of social media.

Twitter is similar to Facebook in that it is used for more written updates rather than being picture based. Twitter is probably the most instant social media. By that I mean if you want to find breaking news it will be on twitter minutes before everything else as there are more constant updates. Twitter is also the hub for sports updates e.g. transfer news, so many people like it for that reason. And finally, one of the main reasons that I use it is to see just how embarrassing my Dad’s tweets are and decide whether he needs to take them down.

Snapchat is relatively new compared to most other social medias, and like other newer social medias it revolves around pictures. Snapchat has many different features such as instant messaging, normal snapchats, snapstreaks and snapchat stories. Instant messaging provides an alternative to text, snapstreaks are just a bit of fun and snapchat stories are a really clever addition as they allow you to post something to your story that can only be seen for twenty four hours. People use snapchat because you can share photos/ moments, you can add things to your story which is like a broadcasted message and finally it can again be used to see what celebrities are doing. “Teens are about 3.5 x as likely to use Snapchat as the average internet user…and more than 40% of them are using the platform in the UK and Canada. Furthermore, it is more popular among US teenagers than either Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.”(Warc, May 2015) “The report said Snapchat remains “a key app to watch” because, again, it is so popular with teenagers.” (Warc, May 2015)

Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world. Worldwide, there are over 1.55 billion monthly active Facebook users (MAUs) which is a 14 percent increase year over year. (Source: Facebook as of 9/30/15) What this means for you: In case you had any lingering doubts, statistically, Facebook is too big to ignore. 4.5 billion likes generated daily as of May 2013 which is a 67 percent increase from August 2012 (Source: Facebook). Photo uploads total 300 million per day. Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. Among my friends Facebook is used to watch funny videos and pranks e.t.c., to see what friends and family are doing, to keep in touch with family members from all around the world and to organize things such as meet ups. One more thing is that the group chat feature allows us to share things in a more private way to just one person or a select group of people that you choose

YouTube is the second most used social media in the world and the most used by people my age. YouTube is unique in that it has an entertainment factor that the others don’t and watching your favorite YouTubers can offer a simple ans more instant alternative to TV. YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of all people on the Internet, and every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S. The number of hours people spent watching videos on mobile is up 100% y/y. YouTube is used for a variety of different reasons but the main ones are: It is the most entertaining, to watch YouTubers, funny fails and vloggers, to watch football compilations and to watch gaming videos. Furthermore, many people use YouTube for their own channels. Running your own channel is fun to do and if you’re are successful a good source of income.

One more thing I would like to mention is social gaming. Social gaming accounts for a huge amount of the internet’s traffic. A new poll by the Pew Research Center finds that 80 percent of American kids between ages 12 and 17 have a game console. Social gaming is a fun and easy way to communicate and do fun things with your friends. For example, after I have done my homework the first thing that I do is go on my Xbox, join a party and a game and start talking and playing with my friends. Once again, although it may sound bad its true that social gaming like FIFA is an easier way to do activities with your friends that doesn’t involve too much effort. As well as this the BBC have recently said that they are considering televising competitive gaming which could be huge in terms of views especially from people my age. When I go onto YouTube the main thing that I, and most of my friends, watch is gaming. It is fun to watch especially if the YouTuber gives funny commentary. This could be a huge success if BBC , and any other channel that plan to televise this, advertise it right. Not only do they need to advertise it on their own TV channels but they also need to advertise on Games Consoles home menu’s and relevant YouTube videos as this is where you will find the people who would be interested in watching it. One more thing they could do is invite famous gamers such as the Sidemen e.t.c. to come and play as that would also attract attention.